Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill Will Not Be Put to Vote This Year Due To Opposition

It seems Tennessee Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, is afraid that Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill won’t make it through current legislative session based on the fact that “some people who didn’t want to vote on it” and is shelving it “for this year”.

However the State Department of Education and Board of Education has directed schools via letter not to teach about homosexuality in grades K-8 at all.

The bill passed the Senate last year and recently won approval in modified form from the House Education Committee on an 8-7 vote. It needed only the approval of the Calendar Committee, usually a routine matter, to be set for a floor vote.

Hensley said nickname the bill received “really wasn’t what the bill was all about” and contributed to unease of some legislators in voting on the measure. He said the bill could be re-filed next year if there is any indication of “alternate lifestyles” being prompted in Tennessee schools despite the pending letter.

The operative language of the amended version says that in grades K-8 any such classroom instruction, course materials or other informational resources that are inconsistent with natural human reproduction shall be classified as inappropriate for the intended student audience and, therefore, shall be prohibited.”

Hopefully progressive teachers in Tennesse will see that even though they can’t talk about “homosexuality” in grades

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Will Kohler is one of America's well known LGBT historians, He is also a a accredited journalist and the owner of Back2Stonewall.com.
A longtime gay activist Will fought on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT-UP and continues fighting today for LGBT acceptance and full equality.
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